Is Joel Embiid the greatest big man of all-time?

Is Joel Embiid the greatest big man of all-time?

I want to start with the NBA because I saw a game last night and I saw this brother Joel embi show up and I saw him come back just the second game back after he was out for a few gamees from that sore knee dropped 41 and 10 on Nico

Yic and the Denver Nuggets the reigning defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets and when I’m thinking about joeel andb let’s get something out of the way right now he is the reigning League MVP and right now he’s the leading candidate for League MVP honors now he’s missed 10

Games he’s missed 29 of the 39 games he was eligible to play in uh obviously due to aore KN by and large and because of that according to the new rules that have been implemented by the NBA just this past October to address load management whereas if you miss more than

17 games if you don’t play at least 65 games to be specific you’d be rendered ineligible for some of the awards all NBA league MVP that kind of thing so we got to pay attention to that when it comes to joeel and beid if that’s what

You care about if that’s what he car cares about that is something that obviously he has to be mindful because over the course of the next 42 or 43 games or so he can’t miss more than seven more games he misses more than seven games that renders him ineligible for those Awards

Now the question to me what’s really resonating in my mind is whether or not he gives a damn that’s what I want to know from Joel embiid this is embid talking about load man check it out y’all it doesn’t matter how many games I play the goal is to be healthy the rest

Of the year we’re winning that’s the main thing if there’s something going on and I can’t meet the requirement for the amount of games played to qualify for NBA MVP then so be it he had bet say that he had better said that he had better order

Those words out of his mouth because if he gave two cents of a damn about winning League MVP I would be incredibly disappointed in Joel andb let’s put stuff in perspective right now as we sit here today on this particular Wednesday the Philadelphia 76ers are 26 and 13 they’ve

Got the next two days off before they play against Friday they’re the number three seed in the Eastern Conference behind the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks they’ve played Boston they’ve gone at it with Boston we know that Boston is the elite team in the Eastern Conference and not the entire

NBA but they tend to jack up too many threes we look at the Milwaukee Bucks and we say this is not Mike buen hose is Milwaukee Bucks who actually played defense this Milwaukee Bucks team struggles defensively now it helps that they got Dame Tom who showed up the

Other night and hit the game-winning shot from about 40 feet this is what he does we saw Janis San Tumo wrap his arms around Damen Lillard we know what they can do offensively in Milwaukee we get that but Adrien Griffin had better get things together defensively because I

Believe if he doesn’t and they B out early in this postseason he might lose his job I really feel that way because I haven’t heard players raving about him matter of fact I’ve heard the Greek freak being a bit reticent about him which brings us to Philadelphia when you look at the

Eastern Conference right now they’re 26 and 13 ladies and gentlemen I’m here to make this announcement the Philadelphia 76s could win the East they could win the East Joel embiid is one reason he’s averaging 35 a game Tyrese Maxi is another reason averaging over 25 a game plus the

Brother K ball he’s at the point guard spot doesn’t have to share the ball or wait for James Harden to give it to him because James Harden is now excelling in Los Angeles and Tyrese Maxi is excelling in Philadelphia the key to all of this all of this

Success for the Philadelphia 76ers is Tobias Harris who dropped 24 last night in beating the reigning defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets Tobias harage who’s averaging 18 and six shooting 51% from the field Tobias Harris who can Ball by the way is a legit 6768 can got a Jay can put the ball on

The floor can post you up can score how aggressive is he going to be that’s the question that we have to start asking we have to start asking but I got news for you did you know that the Philadelphia 76ers just like they did last year still ranked top four

Defensively with defensive rating did you know that did you know that they’re averaging seven more points per game this year than they did last year did you know that you should I’m paying attention to that because I’m looking at the Philadelphia 76s and I’m saying to myself wait a minute if they’re more

Potent offensively their Pace has quickened and on top of it all it hasn’t compromised them defensively and Joel and be can be healthy and plays this way and Tyrese Maxi can continue to play this way then it really comes down to Tobias Harris and the reason why I’m

Bringing Tobias Harris up is because everybody thinks the Sixers are move away or move away or move away well what move do I want Pascal kakum do I want Zack LaVine do I want somebody like Deonte Murray I don’t want those pieces if Tobias Harris shows up and is

Aggressive on a night in night out basis and shows you that he has skills that he’s got a game that he has an offensive pulse too if Tobias Harris plays like he’s played in three of the last four games dropping 32 in a loss dropping 37 and a win over

Sacramento dropping 24 last night against Denver if that Tobias Harris shows up ladies and gentlemen Philadelphia what exactly is it that they need I’m just asking I’m just asking because I’m not sure they need much which brings me back to Joel embid because obviously that subject goes

Right out the window if Joel embid doesn’t show up come postseason time and play the way that he plays during the regular season the priority ladies and gentlemen doesn’t need to be about some damn League MVP already got one here’s the number that matters the brothers 5- one in opening round playoff

Series he’s 0 and5 in Eastern Conference semi-finals series 0 and five that means he’s never been to a Conference Finals which means he’s never been to an NBA finals which means he’s never won a championship and yic has now I don’t know if any of y’all have seen this when

You think about the comparisons that exist between a yic and an embiid but look at my wallpaper here look at the comparisons with these two this season alone joic is at 25 and a half points per game and beid is aaging 10 more points a game jic is shooting

58% from the field and be is at 53.8 jic is averaging 11.9 he’s averaging 11.6 9.1 assist to 6.1 assist so embiid got him in points per game is right there with him in rebounds per game durability obviously works in jokic’s favor he can’t jump on a curb can’t jump

Onto a curb but nobody can stop him I still can’t figure it out he’s just a big tub of LW that just leans his body on you and stuff like that every time I think about joic Nicole yic I think about Tyson Fury fighting Deontay Wilder even when I miss I’m just going

To lean on him and lean on him and lean on him eventually his legs are going to give out and he’s goingon to be a stationary Target for me that’s what Tyson Fury said before he beat him in a Trilogy and I’ll be damned if he didn’t

Call it accurately that’s yic he leans on everybody swings the elbow just leans of that doesn’t have any kind of physique whatsoever look like a damn walr half the time but it doesn’t matter because he’s phenomenal he’s great he can’t be stopped but I told y’all last week despite his

Greatness give me both of them healthy and I’m taking embiid all day every day as long as embiid is fixated on winning the championship let me be very clear I don’t give a about no damn League MVP for joeel andb I could care less if he wins a

Second one I he should be after the Chip he should be after the chip you don’t believe me listen to my man Shaquille O’Neal he was on this show right here the Stephen A Smith show just a couple weeks ago explaining this very thing this very comparison about Joel embi and

League MVP honors as opposed to championships and just opposing that to Nicole yic the reigning defending NBA champion listen to Shaquille O’Neal break this down for you they’re both great players but if Joel doesn’t win you’re going to kill him you your show yeah you big perk JJ reick right Joker

Has that edge he’s one right right you know even though you know the numbers are different and I uh I had an interview the other day and I I could remember having similar lesser numbers in Joel and beid and they asked the great Kareem Abdul jaar what do you

Think about Shaq and his response was he’s pretty good but he hasn’t won yet kind of broke my heart but it was The Truth Listen Joel MB is a fabulous talent definitely number one number two but if he doesn’t win in this world we live in you’re G to kill him see what

I’m saying Shaquil is absolutely right J and B goes into the playoffs and wet the bed again we will crucify him I’ll be the first to do it and I love the guy you got to perform ladies and gentlemen if you don’t have the ability to do it you

Don’t have the ability to do it Stevia don’t knock scrubs I don’t knock scrubs cuz if you scrub you scrub you just couldn’t play there have been times in my life that I did and I won’t name any names and I regret that I humbly concede

I was a bit rough I didn’t know Twitter would come along later and Instagram and Tik Tok and all of this other stuff I didn’t know YouTube would exist at that time I didn’t know that stuff that I said decades ago would go viral today I

Didn’t know I didn’t know so I apologize for people that I called scrubs and it went viral but in today’s generation of players I don’t bother scrubs hell I was one of them why would I want to bother the scrubs but if you can play and you got

The skills and you got the talent then it comes down to the fire in your belly and that’s what we’re talking about when we’re talking about Joe lmb last night 41 points 59% shooting 12 of 15 free throws 10 assists seven rebounds 18th straight game of 30 points or more

Ty Hall of Famer Elgen biller for the sixth long Street in NBA history oh by the way embiid has scored 40 or more points in seven of his last 13 games the man is phenomenal he’s averaging like I told you 35.1 points per game but he

Needs to play the 65 if that’s what you’re thinking about and what you’re thinking about is League MVP I’m not thinking about that I’m thinking about the fact that you got to win the championship or at least come out of the East how about get to the damn Conference Finals that would

Suffice how about that some advancement is necessary he’s going up against yic head-to-head eight times and beat is one six times averaging 27 and yic is 26 shooting 38% from three the yic 29% averaging 11 Point 11 rebounds to jic is 10 has two blocks to yic one head

To-head this is what embiid does and here’s why I love embiid so much because in the game of basketball at some point in times it com com down to you against me Mano Mano what’s up what you going to do let’s get it on and beid talk smack

To you before he plays you then steps on the court and validates it by busting your ass I love that that’s what basketball is see Patrick Mahomes is getting ready to go up against Josh Allen but Josh Allen don’t play defense and neither does Mahomes Josh Allen got

To go against Kansas City’s defense Mahomes got to go against buffalo’s defense see that’s not Mano imano sometimes the discrepancy is flagrant because one team has a defense and the other doesn’t but in basketball you literally can go up against one another D way could go up against

Kobe okay AI could go up against smallbury you feel me Shaq could go up against a David Robinson or Patrick Ying Kareem could go up against Russell and Russell could go up against Chamberlain you think I don’t know how great Chamberlain was nobody else averaged 50 and 25 in the

Season but when your Nemesis has 11 championships playing the same position you play and you have two you don’t deserve to be mentioned ahead of them why because it comes down to the chip I understand that some great players don’t have great teams and the great teams usually win

But in the sport of basketball I’ve seen plenty of situations and plenty of instances is where I’ve looked at other teams Seattle and Phoenix to a lesser degree Portland going up against Jordan and Chicago and one could easily argue that the supplementary parts around the stars were

Better than what Chicago had they just didn’t have Jordan because in the sport of basketball that makes up for it look at LeBron’s teams that he got to the finals with San you know when the first go round against San Antonio what team was that got him to the

Finals yeah he had a crew in Miami yeah he had Kyrie and Jordan love I’m sorry Kevin Love but it took KD joining the Splash Brothers to take him down greatness in the sport of basketball can catapult you to another level that’s what I’m asking to see from Joel

Embiid and if that man has to miss another 10 games this season to ensure that he’s ready come postseason to wreak havoc and get out of the damn second round so be it I don’t care about some damn MVP not from him because we already know how

Great he is and his greatness has been cemented in terms of an individual Talent now it comes down to this can you win can you win everybody want to talk about load management and the 65 game rule and they bring up Anthony Davis and joke it around because Anthony Davis only played

Half the season last year and The Season’s past he’s missed about 30 or 40 game or 26 games here damn all that Anthony Davis averaging 25 and 12 and although it was because of a covid halted season they gave them a four-month break Hiatus before they came back to play bottom

Line is Anthony Davis has a chip Joel andb does not Anthony Davis has played in the Conference Finals Joel embiid is not Anthony Davis played in the NBA Finals Joel embiid is not joic has played in one of the finals it’s his turn it’s his turn you can’t be this

Great when we think about the big men in this game we think about a yic we think about a Giannis you think about the preeminent bigs in today’s game they got championships and Championship Contender status attached to to their names it’s Joel embiid’s turn it’s just that simple Philly got a chance

Y’all I’m telling you right now Philly has a chance I’m just looking at some of the things that I’m seeing and I’m telling you I’m not ignoring this I can’t ignore this any longer we got to pay attention to this Philly’s got a chance Philly has a chance Clippers look

Better Denver looks better Boston looks better I get it I just saw Philly get their ass kicked by the New York Knicks nearly two weeks ago in Philadelphia with embiid playing right after they got ogan anobi but in reality do we really really really think that if

Joel embiid is at his best that the New York Knicks with Isaiah hartenstein is going to stop and beat in the Sixers and I’m a Nicks fan I don’t see that let’s get on our PS and q’s and understand what we talking about here when we think about the greats the great

Big men in NBA history that’s mikin as in George mikin it’s Bill Russell it’s Will Chamberlain it’s Kareem Abdul Jabar that’s Moses Malone that’s Hakeem the dream elijahwan that’s David Robinson that’s Patrick Ying that’s Shaquille O’Neal when we think about the great big men in the history of this sport can we

Definitively say that any of them is better skill-wise than what we’ve seen Joel and B put on display think about that y’all think about it this is basketball they don’t call me Steph naith for nothing

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